Broken Wings Still Fly
by cooliestloser
Summary: It all started when Fang disappeared. Now, he has a power he can't control, and the whitecoats are trying to get him on their side, no matter what it takes. It's starting to seem like Max may have to save the world from the most unlikely person.
1. Gone

_Hey, everybody!! I am cooliestloser, the great of the ungreat and this is my first MR fic, so I'm no sure how it's going to, but I'm hoping it will do OK. Anyways, does anybody seriously think that I'm James Patterson? I do not own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters from the books in this story, but the basic plot line is mine. Well, I hope you like it!!_

"Knock-knock!" Gazzy shouted for the millionth time in the same joke, which I of course already knew the end of (assuming the end ever came).

"If I say who's there, will you just finish the freaking joke?" I responded in an exasperated tone, fed up with the banana/orange stupidity.

He nodded earnestly, and, rolling my eyes, I spoke the dreaded words, "Who's there?"

"Orange!" he grinned. So far the kid had held true to his word.

"Orange who?" I continued in a monotone voice. Taking the entire flock on a terribly long flying trip across the continent SO does not mark the top of my favorites list.

"Orange you glad I didn't say banana?!" he cackled and flew away holding his stomach out of laughter.

I shook my head in the disbelief of 8-year-old humor, and felt a sudden-but-totally-expected-and-frequent need to check the flock's, well, not exactly safety, as that is impossible's 1st cousin, but okayness for the time-being.

I swiveled around in a 360° turn, mentally accounted for each of their whereabouts. Angel was staring at Nudge with a grossed-out yet extremely interested expression on her face, obviously reading her reading his mind. Nudge, in turn, was looking at Iggy with a fixed, dreamy expression on her face. Angel and I exchanged a disgusted glance on our face. All I could think was, "Ew." Angel nodded her agreement, and Gazzy, clearly getting a thought from Angel, dropped his mouth open so wide I hoped that some poor bird would fly too high and get stuck in his mouth. That would definitely provide a much-needed comedy refresher.

That left Fang. He didn't seem to be, well, anywhere. He wasn't in front of me, to the left or right of me, or, that I could see, below me. I turned myself around, and my heart seemed to turn to lead and drop into my stomach. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Fang?" I called, fear evident in my voice. The flock stopped their little fun-fest, and focused their attention on our newly-faced problem. "Has anybody seen him?" I asked out of instinct, even though I knew the answer was no. In response to my thoughts, all heads were shaken in the negative.

"Okay…" there had to be something, "Angel, any thoughts before he disappeared?"

"Well…" She hesitated.

"Tell me," I demanded, my voice hard as steel.

"I tried, but I only got a few flashes of random stuff, like 'People listing longer comments on blog' and 'So bored I would find a spoon amusing' and 'Angel get the h*ll out of here'."

"Okay, Angel, sweetie, just because Fang feels that he has the athority to use certain naughty words doesn't you have permission, too, not that he does," I finished the conversation, already launching deep into thought of what could have happened, and came up with a list of possibilities as I gave instructions to land until we figure out what to do. The list came out like this:

Possible Reasons Fang is Missing:

He can now become totally invisible and wants to scare the crap out of us

He was kidnapped by some new evil creepo

He decided he was bored and went to go find a spoon or something

He passed out and fell out of the sky while everyone was occupied

He wanted some 'alone time' with his blog

He deserted us

I hoped beyond all possible hope that it wasn't options 2, 4, or 6, and hoped a reasonable amount that it wasn't option 1 either because that would be so far beyond annoying.

"Okay," I spoke up among the silence as we ended our descent onto an exciting green patch of grass in the middle of nowhere, "We're gonna have to split up." Everyone looked pretty much okay with this situation, although I am certain nobody particularly enjoyed it.

"Gazzy and Nudge, you guys search the north, both high and low; Iggy and Angel, you search high and low on east, plus high on south. I'll search the low south, plus high and low west. Everybody cool with that?" I knew they were probably pretty pissed at the partners, but no way was I gonna put Iggy and Gazzy together; we did not need a whole little green patch erupting into flames without the knowledge of anybody else. On the bright side, our (when 'our' doesn't include Angel) decision to leave Total at home was definitely making things easier.

With that, we each took off in our separate directions, hoping for the best, yet expecting the worst.

_Well, how was it? Do you think that I should continue it, or not? Also, why are all the good things bad for you in the end? Couldn't the good things just be good, end of story? Oh well… please comment!!_


	2. Hit

_Hey, people, I'm back again!!! Thanks a bunch to __samzeman for giving me my very first review; totally made my day!! OK, I will now write chapter 2 while listening to Ray play Lego Star Wars… ah the joys of little brothers! Disclaimer: If I were James Patterson and I owned any of this other than original characters and the basic plot, I promise you that I would not be writing something for a freaking fan site. ____ Oh and this chapter takes place a little bit before the last one. =D_

Fang P.O.V

'Angel, get the h*ll out of here!' I was getting far beyond annoyed at the little mind reading demon child that Max seemed to find so adorable for reasons unknown.

'Why?' her thoughts echoed back to me in the form of an overly ridiculous question.

'Gee, I wonder why I would possibly want a pesky 7-year-old to stop reading my mind which should be a very private place?' As soon as I thought it, I realized that it may have been overly harsh, but I shook it off and didn't honestly care.

In response to the un-mattering harshness, Angel sent me a glare and flew away, ready to go to work on some other poor, defenseless victim.

I returned my expression to one void of emotion, but felt that something wasn't right. Before I could even look behind me, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck. My hand instinctively flew to the spot, and came into contact with a thin dart, and I quickly pulled it out, but new it was too late to stop whatever was laced with, and it was undoubtedly was laced with something, from doing what it was created to do.

My head suddenly began to pound, and my throat became dry as the California desert. A nauseous feeling developed in my stomach, and my chest felt like an overweight elephant had just come back from eating a rather large bag of peanuts and found my lungs (and, yes, air sacks) a good place to sit. I became overpoweringly dizzy, and felt extremely weak. I struggled to stay in the air, and concentrated on moving my dark wings up and down.

I wanted to cry out for help, but no sound escaped my lips. Black dots danced within my vision, and I could feel myself getting lower and lower, losing power with each beat of my heart which, for you clueless ones, is rather frequent.

After only about two minutes, I couldn't keep going. I let my wings go slack and fell through the air, awaiting the smack against the ground that was sure to come.

But before the impact came, I felt strong arms roughly pull me out of my descent toward the earth, and, for a moment, I became alert, but soon fell back into my previous state, almost all my sense cloudy.

I didn't care to think about what might happen next, all I could think about was, for some reason, Max. I looked back toward the flock just as my capturer yanked me behind some strangely tall trees, and saw Max turn around, her eyes widening, only seconds too late.

As I was caught up in my thoughts, my head was slammed against something harder than your average tree branch, and, although it wasn't a very hard impact, it was enough to render me completely unconscious, which honestly wasn't anything less of a relief.

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_ I hope it was good enough for you to say it was! Please review and tell me how you think it was! Please? :) See ya later!_

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	3. If Only

_Hola compadres, amigos, friends!! I sprecken de Spanish!! Go me!! Well not really but that is _ok_!! Anywayz… thanks a ton to… Orangeduck23, for adding my story to your story alert, and also to Rainie16 for reviewing (yay!!), adding me to your fav authors list, and also to the author alert thingabobber. You guys rock! OK anyways… I have a current obsession for this story and am updating frequently… : ) Where is Fang? Who was the wacko who can apparently fly? You don't know… and I don't know… but soon we shall!!_

Max P.O.V (back in current time)

It had been two hours. Two whole hours of searching for sir Prince of Darkness, and we still hadn't found him. Not even a freaking clue; no smashed laptop on the ground (and I hate to say this but if I found his precious laptop smashed on the ground I'd probably laugh), and no random strips of dark clothing. Nada. Zilch. ZERO.

I was just about to give up when I heard a yell rip through the air, coming from the west: my direction. Thus I was once again filled with hope, and rushed off like a valiant soldier defending their-

OK, that's what I wished happened. But, no. It didn't. And for those of you who believed it, I have one thing to say to you: Seriously?

What really happened was that I turned around and went back to my flock. I, the great Maximum Ride, had practically given up on my best friend, the one that I could go to for anything, and the one who would never give up on me. But now, it was getting dark, and the flock + dark + Gazzy and Iggy's love for pranks and amusement upon the defenseless = major uh-oh.

I turned and flew to the designated center point where the flock would return, thinking that I had done all I could have done for that night. Suddenly, however, the Voice (oh the joy) came back to me,

'Maximum,' it echoed through my mind, as unwelcome as ever.

'Um, voice?' I responded, 'You would have been _so_ helpful just a little bit ago. Why Now?'

It didn't answer (shocker) and instead went fortune-cookie on me, again, 'Do not abandon him. You now are needed where you know you should be more than ever.'

'And where, exactly,' I retorted, 'Do I know I'm supposed to be?'

'You will know, in time.'

Stupid Voice. Never giving just a straight answer.

'What do you mean, I'll know?' My efforts were in vain, though, because the voice never responded. I rolled my eyes and decided that I was 'needed' back with my flock.

If only I had known.

Fang P.O.V

The first thing I noticed was that there was more pain then there was when I was knocked out. The second was that I no longer had my laptop/backpack. The third was that there would be no way I could update the blog from wherever I was. The fourth was that I didn't know where I was. And the fifth was that I was in the back of a truck with no light and the sound of someone moving across from me.

"Um, hello?" my voice sounded dry and it hurt to talk. I mentally cursed myself for saying anything, but new it was necessary.

I got no reply, but instead the person, who apparently has very poor social skills, started talking into what I believe was a walkie-talkie of some sort.

"The specimen is awake. It sounds confused, and its voice does not appear to be at full strength. The injection has begun to take effect. I will make sure the creature goes nowhere and is kept contained." The dude clicked off the walkie-talkie thing, and shut up.

"Did you seriously call me 'it'? I'm a dude, dude," Pain or no pain, this idiot was getting on my nerves.

Again, he didn't answer, but before he could go tattle on his boss, a voice came through the stupid talking machine.

"Velly good. I vill make sure zat ze crveature voesn't get avay vis time. I vill not only summon ze vone called Maximum, but vill take advintige of ve new power. Togezer, I vill make zertain that vey vill help me vule ze vorld." Guess who. If you happened to guess Ter Borcht, then you'd be right! I mean, come on, who else would have an accent that insanely bizarre?

"He seems to have a bit of an attitude problem," the 'attendant' spoke into the walkie-talkie, and my stomach turned to lead as I knew what was bound to happen.

"Puneesh heem as vou veel necessary," came the creep's reply.

"Very well, master," his tone sounded evil, with happiness intertwined, "I will be sure he feels the pain that comes with being a brat." With that, I heard a thunk that must have been him setting down the walkie-talkie, and I could feel his footsteps advancing toward me. A light flicked on, and in front of me was a huge, towering man, with a look of both entertainment and anticipation covering his butt of a face. He pulled his arm back, ready to begin the 'punishing'.

Well, crap. This was not going to end well.

_Poor Fang… it will not be fun to write in his P.O.V for the next little while… or maybe it will be, who knows? Anyway… I hope you guys liked it like ya liked oranges! If you don't like oranges, then bananas. If not bananas, then grapes. If not grapes, then peaches. If not that then you seriously need some variety. OK, please review? The next chapter would be oh so much quicker if I got, say… 3 reviews? Pretty please with cotton candy on top (cherries are so overrated)?_


	4. Black Hawks and Punishment

_Hey guys!! I'm back!! Thank you, again :) to Rainie16 for your review, to WingedSkywire for the review and for adding me to your story alerts, and also to the random anonymous person for your review! Thank you guys so so much for your support and such! OK, I am obviously not James Patterson and, therefore, do not own Maximum Ride (no duh). Anywayz… hope ya like it!_

Max P.O.V (right after ch. 3 takes place)

The sky was dark, and the rest of the flock had fallen asleep about an hour ago, but as the moon shone down on the field, I couldn't even fall asleep if I wasn't on watch duty. This whole disappearing thing was so not going to be good for my health.

I sighed and wrapped my wings around myself, shielding myself form a cold wind blowing past us. I tried to come up with things to occupy myself, and to get my mind off of Fang, but found it (guess what?) impossible. There was not going to be much sleep in my near future.

Somehow, I got my mind off of him, and got to thinking about the rest of the flock. I was just about to decide on where and when our next meal would be, when a gorgeous black hawk, coming out of seemingly nowhere, swooped over the flock. It was all alone, and didn't have any intent that I could see to change that. But when it got close enough to us so that we could practically touch it, its speed slowed, as if it had an extreme longing to be in a group and to be loved.

It was sort of funny, how it didn't show that it wanted anything but to be alone, but it wanted to have friends. As the hawk soared out of sight, I still didn't let myself face the familiarity or the irony of its personality, because I knew that I would get too emotional over it. I simply sighed, and went back to occupying myself with an argument over Wendy's and McDonald's, though I no longer really cared.

Fang P.O.V

His fist flew towards me, and connected powerfully with my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I tried to stand up and fight back, realizing that, for some odd reason, I wasn't chained up or anything. But the moment I got to my feet, an insane dizziness overpowered me and I fell back, my head spinning.

The walking refrigerator just laughed, and landed a kick to my ribs before talking.

"You won't be getting up any time soon, stupid bird kid," he laughed again, and threw me against the wall. This guy had to be genetically altered; it took a lot to hurt one of us, and no human had been able to do it yet.

He continued kicking and punching and the likes, trying to see how much I could take. Each hit was only about a tenth of what we could do, but given the whole poison dart thing and the ongoing repetitiveness, it began to take a toll.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the truck came to a sudden halt, throwing me and the brick wall against the side of the truck. I clenched my jaw at the pain of the impact after my little 'punishment'. The man looked at me and took in my expression, his face exploding into a smile.

'Don't worry, buddy,' I thought, not wanting to speak out of obvious reasons, 'I promise that when I get the chance, you will be in mucho de pain,' I refused to say 'if'. I kept myself thinking that if I didn't blow through these guys myself, Max and the rest of the flock would come and help me out a bit. Or a lot, but it didn't really matter.

The fathead stood up after he finished enjoying my pain (jerk) and yanked me to my feet, just as the truck doors flew open, revealing a dark sky dotted with stars and a bright full moon.

The mini Godzilla pushed me ahead, and stars danced in front of my eyes, but, thanks to his tree trunk of an arm, I managed to stay upright until the unwanted shapes disappeared.

Ter Borcht replaced the shapes and, after looking me over (not THAT way you pervs), let loose that annoying little accent of his,

"I see you have brought him vitting punishvent, Tiberius, yah?" What country was he from, anyway?

Before I could say anything that would get me in trouble, Tiberius (HA!) spoke up, "Yes. I don't believe he will act up in this way again."

There were so many things I wanted to say to that massive oaf, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Then ve shall begin ze tests." Ter Borcht's face lit up with an evil grin, and I found myself wishing I was anywhere but there.

_You like, yah? Ter Borcht is just so kind! What will the tests be? Nobody knows!! Did anybody else go to the Jonas Brothers concert Saturday night? It was so fricken cool!!! : ) Anywayz… chapters come faster if reviews are plentiful…. So review and you will be rewarded!! With virtual cotton candy!!!_


	5. Failed

_HI!!!!! Wow, you guys rock like crazy about the whole reviewing and such thing! In one or two days, I got three reviews, and one person added me to their story alerts page! Those awesomely awesome people would be… djpc450_ _with a review_, WingedSkywire, _review, _Rainie16 _also with a review, _(virtual cotton candy to you all!), _and to _volleyballgurl4HIM, _for adding me to your story alert (you also get virtual cotton candy)! Thanks a ton! Now… I am not nor will ever be James Patterson, and therefore don't own this story, in case you didn't catch on to that earlier… anywayz… here the story goes!_

Max P.O.V

I was just about to wake Iggy for his turn on guard (yes, folks, the blind dude is gonnna be on watch, got a problem?) when everything just seemed to stop. I mean, practically literally, stop. The birds shut their teensy little beaks, all the coyotes stopped laughing and howling, and the wind slowed to a halt. All that I could hear was the flock breathing, each breath sounding as loud as a cannon fire.

My ears suddenly picked up a sort of droning noise, and I hoped for just a second that maybe, it had something to do with… I didn't even get to finish the hope, for as I looked up, I saw a plane, making its way across the sky; probably none of those people had a single care in the world.

A wave of emotion flew over me on a sudden impact, and I found myself wishing that they had something bad that they had to care about. Wishing that maybe someone close to them had just died, or disappeared. I found myself wishing that the flock had never existed in the first place, and that those stupid white-coats had left us all alone. I wished that I could be living with my mom, just as a normal kid.

Then, other thoughts entered my mind. Iggy and I would be better off, sure, but what about the other kids? Gazzy and Angel would be living with the woman who wanted to sell them for money, Nudge with her mom who was, apparently, living in a rundown place in the middle of nowhere, and Fang, with his mom who we believe to be a crack addict. So, which would be better? Then another wondering question found its way into my head: If Jeb was my dad for the sake of science, then would I even have been born at all?

As my brain settled down all these wishes and possible controversies, the impact of those emotions causing them, I sat down heavily in the grass. Silent tears fell down my face, though I quickly wiped them away.

'It will be over soon,' I told myself, only about 10% of me actually believing them, 'And everyone of us will be free, to just fly and be the kids we've always wanted to be.'

Even that slight reassurance calmed me down, and I settled against the tree the flock was sleeping both around and in, pretty much the only one near our meeting point, since the forest I had seen was too far away. I took a deep, calm breath then shook Iggy awake for his watch.

I shut my eyes contentedly, and drifted off into a (thankfully) dreamless sleep.

Fang P.O.V

For those of you who thought that the term 'tests' meant with a pencil and paper, I have one question: Where on earth have you been? Under a rock?

This guy must have been a fan of trees, because there was no paper, and no wooden pencils. He chose a great time to go environmental, note the sarcasm.

Instead, he told me to fly. As in, he let me go and told me to fly as high as I could. Raising any eyebrows? You should be.

Tiberius (now I know exactly why he's so mean) shoved me forward, and I stumbled but managed to catch myself. Ter Borcht sent me a glare, and I spread my wings, glaring strait back at him.

He pointed briskly upward, and I spread my long, dark wings, thrilled to feel the wind blow on them once again.

I leaped off of the hard, dirt ground with all the power I could summon up which, by now, really wasn't much, but it was enough to get me off of the ground.

I stoked my wings, up, then down, trying to get off the ground, hoping that I possessed enough strength to get away. Of course, after about two strokes, the dizziness returned, and I fell to the ground, and I would have landed face-first if my arms hadn't flown up in time, which, somehow they did.

I lay still on the ground, breathing heavily. I couldn't believe that I had seriously fallen like that, after only two strokes. I tucked my wings back in, and waited for ter Borcht to order his minion to start hurting me or something.

"Pathetic," he spat, "This vone vill take some vork. Leave him there, we vill continue this in ze morning."

With that, he spun on his heel and stomped away, kicking up dirt as he went. I blinked it out of my eyes, but couldn't find the energy to wipe away the rest of it, which was lightly coating my face.

Tiberius followed, but not before landing a hard kick to the side of my head. All I could hear was the ringing in my skull, but I could see him laughing. The last thing that my eyes took in before the world went black was him following ter Borcht, an evil grin plastered on his face.

_Poor Fang, and also, Poor Max… for different reasons, of course, but still. Did you like it? I hope so!!! It's actually decently long this time…. It looks so much longer when I'm writing it!!!! Well, please review, because I will be suddenly struck with inspiration when I get the review alerts in my inbox!! Please? This time the reward is virtual Diet Coke!! : )_


	6. Still Not Safe

_Hey everybody! I am back! I have been procrastinating this for some odd reason of which I do not know…. :) so… sorry! This was supposed to be up like 24 hours ago, so I am going quickly! I am going to try to make this chapter longer than the other ones, so let's see how this works out. Oh, and thank you to the following awesomely awesome people:_

_Volleyballgurl4HIM- review :) ; tearsXsolitude- review_ , and adding me to favorite story list!!!_, :D ; Rainie16- review (4__th__ time! Thank you!) and if I didn't reply because I can't remember if I did then sorry! =) ; and last but most certainly not least, MandKxo- 2 reviews (not on ch. 5 but you still reviewed so you're awesome!), and a story alert. Thanks a ton you guys!!! You get virtual Diet Coke now….=D_

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Max P.O.V

_By the time I woke up the next morning, the sun had already risen above the horizon. I mean, no a ton, but still; entirely above the horizon, which I found strange._

_Another thing that I found strange was that there was no flock around me. They were all gone. The only moving things in sight were the blades of grass and the leaves of the tree, dancing in the wind._

_I leapt to my feet, and saw the faces of each of the flock members appear before my eyes; Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel… and a fuzzy Fang, with most details obscured. I reached out to grab him, wanting to make him clear, wanting to bring him back to me, but everything disappeared before I could._

_I looked to the ground, and realized that I, too, was growing fuzzy. My fingers began to seemingly merge together, and the land surrounding me faded as well, until everything was white, and I was the absolute only person, or object, or anything anywhere in my vision, which, believe me, is a pretty wide range._

_Suddenly, I began to refocus. I found the strength to find myself before I could fade away. The landscape became again grass and the tree, and each detail I could see stood out clearly on its own. I sighed a breath of relief, and closed my eyes…_

My eyes snapped open, revealing a mostly dark world, with a hint of pink light creeping up from the ground.

I swiveled around, bringing each and every comforting detail surrounding me. Three sleeping members of the flock, breathing peacefully, sounding kinda like near silent waves crashing at a beach, and one blind one listening for any intruders, relaxed my tense mind. I had been to a beach only two major times. The first I nearly killed myself, and the second, I was at a naval base (I still have to suppress a slight chuckle every time I hear that term) in paradise, which was so much better than the first lovely experience.

So, that fading thing had been a dream. Honestly, I can't say that I was less than thrilled. But, it seemed like it was trying to give me a message.

'Great,' I thought, 'now, not only do I have an unwelcome voice, I've got a fortune-telling movie theatre too!' As if I didn't have enough to deal with.

Iggy, apparently noticing that I was awake, sent a half-hearted wave in my direction, not really wanting to try to send a look.

"Should we wake up the kids?" he asked, signaling to everyone on the ground.

"Yeah," I replied, re-assuming my role as leader, not willing to let it slip out of my control, "Then let's find like a McDonald's or something of the sort." I had given up on deciding which one, and would choose whichever one ended up closer; the entire time I had just really been trying to focus on something slightly happy.

I shook Gazzy awake first, and his blue eyes stared up at me. "'Morning, Max," he mumbled, still half asleep.

"Come on, kiddo, up and at 'em." He nodded, and I ruffled his hair before moving on to Nudge, seeing that Angel had already awoken.

I tapped her shoulder and, amazingly, she opened her eyes, ready to wake up and help us take on the world. No wanting to sleep in or, at least, no mentioning it.

She smiled, and I smiled back. "Time for us to fly?" she asked, though I could tell from her eyes that she already knew the answer.

I smiled, and then nodded my head to show my answer. "We're gonna go find Fang."

Fang P.O.V

When I pulled my eyes open, I found that I was still on the ground, that I wasn't tied up, and that I didn't feel ready to die. I didn't feel good, or really even decent, but I knew that I could get away and probably still outmatch these creeps if I felt like it.

I pushed myself off of the ground, and found that standing up was not a problem. Checkpoint number one.

I glanced around, praying to whoever it was who listened that no one would come out of the nothingness. Of course, I knew how stupid that sounded, but hey, it's happened before. Heck, I'd done it before, but I was not worried about that.

I spread my wings again, this time out of the want of freedom, not out of some stupid test, and this time, I was confident that I could do it.

I leapt into the air, feeling my wings ride the wind. I blended in perfectly with the midnight sky, even with the light edge on the horizon. I absent-mindedly wondered how long I had been out, and what time it was. Not that it really mattered, but it would have been just a little more comfortable to know.

I winced as the little 'punishment' from Tiberius caught up with me, and I noticed how cold it as in the air. Seeing as it was July and very hot yesterday, I took this as a bad thing no matter what the reason.

I shrugged it off, and focused on flying. I knew that I didn't have much time, and that if I was going to get away, I had to do it soon. Who knew what kind of speed that they could travel at?

I stared straight ahead, and my face became placid, like it usually was. The only time it ever wasn't was probably when Max was near.

_Max._ Her name echoed through my mind, and I sped up just a little bit, wanting to be with her. Even as black dots began clouding my eyes, and my chest started screaming from all the kicks and punches that were directed to them, I never slowed down. The air got colder and colder, and it got harder to breathe, but I never slowed down. If anything, I went faster. I was not going to lose.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, I caught five figures in the distance, about a mile away. My heart began to beat a little faster, and I put on as much speed as I could. Upon getting closer, I saw wings, and human bodies and faces. I allowed a small grin to replace the emotionless emotion my face seemed to always display.

I opened my mouth, ready to call her name and finally be with her again. My yell ripped through the silence as I used all the power I had just to make sure she would hear me.

"MAX!!!"

I saw her swiftly spin around, her face lighting up, bright against the rising sun. She began to fly back towards me, and I let a small, relieved sigh escape my lips.

I succumbed to the pain, and let myself pass out, falling through the air, but knowing that I wouldn't hit the ground. She had rescued me, but I wasn't saved, and I knew that she wasn't either. Nowhere close.

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_Soooo… how was it? You like? I hope so! Gosh, this is the longest one so far! I'm happy! I mean I know of a whole lot of people who could write chapters a ton longer than this, but I don't think I can, haha! Please review! And again sorry about the whole procrastination thing… I tried really hard to not put it off though! So… please review! I will be very happy if you do! :) Luv ya!_


	7. Found By Both

_HI!! Sorry it's been awhile… sad things have been happening but now I'm like overly depressed and need to take it out on someone that I won't get punished for taking it out on…. So ya I'm back now. And thank you to… WinterSky101 for a review on ch.3 and ch.6, and also to Rainie16 for a review (5__th__ time!!!) You guys are completely awesome! And now we begin…._

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Max P.O.V

"MAX!!" I heard someone call out my name, and hope rose like a little hot air balloon inside of me as I realized whose voice it was. I spun around as quickly as I could, a huge grin spreading across my face.

Fang was about two hundred yards away from the rest of us. He met my eyes for a moment, then they fluttered shut, and he began to drop through the air.

My smile instantly disappeared, and my heart dropped to my stomach, and I absent-mindedly wondered where he had been that had made him lose so much energy.

"Iggy, help me out here!" I exclaimed, grabbing a surprised bird-boy's arm and pulling him down with me. I figured out after about two seconds that we weren't going to be able to make it to him in time, and my thoughts flashed briefly to what that would mean. I shook it off and came up with a new plan of action.

I was so not going to let him die on me, so I released Iggy's arm, and flew at top speed toward Fang, and reached him in about five seconds. I wrapped my arms around him, and started to lose altitude as well. Not as quickly, but still dropping. I pounded my wings onto the sky around me as hard as possible, not thinking about anything other than staying air-borne.

Iggy was flying a little to the right of us, so I called out his name to give him a little bit of a clue as to where I was flying/hovering/sinking. He automatically changed direction, and arrived very shortly afterwards to give me some much-needed help.

As we headed awkwardly downwards, we were absolutely silent. I could hear the whispers of the younger kids following our lead, obviously wanting to know what exactly was going on.

'Believe me,' I thought, 'So do I.'

As my mind began to unblock itself, I noticed a few more things than I had at originally. First, Fang was burning up. Like, if I wanted to, I probably could have made (or, in my case, ruined) scrambled eggs on his forehead. Second, he was covered in bruises and cuts, with one particularly long, deep-looking one running down his arm. I felt anger bubble up inside of me, and I probably would have screamed at something for no honest reason if it weren't for the whole "leader must be sane to save the world" thing. Of course, the second part of that wasn't entirely necessary, but it would probably help.

We landed clumsily on the ground, almost dropping Fang in the process (insert Manga-style sweat drop here), but ended up staying on our own two, technically four, feet, and placed him gently on the ground.

"Falling out of the sky," I muttered to no one in particular, "Is starting to become a very annoying habit."

I knelt beside him and brushed some of his hair out of his face, noticing again just how hot it was (not in the way of looks! Or… maybe in the way of looks but not what I meant!!). Again, I became very angry at whatever currently invisible force had done this to him, and I silently swore to myself that there would be some major butt-kicking in the hopefully near future.

Before I could take my anger out on anything living, I stood up and began walking toward the plant life that seemed a lot more common in this area.

"Um, where exactly are you going?" Iggy asked, confusion etched across his face.

I sighed, and turned to face him and answered his question, "I'm gonna go punch a tree before I end up killing every living thing in sight."

He opened his mouth, looking skeptical, but before he could mention anything that questioned my motives, I cut in, "And that _includes_ fourteen-year-old bird kids who get on my nerves."

His mouth immediately closed, and he mumbled something incoherent under his breath that I didn't care to hear.

I spun on my heel, and continued my stalk toward the trees, still trying hard not to scream.

No P.O.V

"What do vou mean, it _got avay_?!" Ter Borcht screamed at the top of his lungs, ready to fire anyone who came within a five-foot radius. And anyone who was fired from his organization was literally fired _at_. Nobody walked away alive. Most people would probably have to die working for him as an old man or woman who should have been sitting comfortably at home. Either that or they would die prematurely, and, of course, nobody wanted that.

Of course, to ter Borcht, none of this mattered. He needed this to work; he had put everything on the line. If he failed, so did his life. Everything rested on this one operation, with, he hoped, many to follow.

And now, that experiment was beginning to fail.

Before anything else could go wrong, he quickly composed himself, wondering what had been wrong.

The poison should have had an effect for forty-eight hours, assuming it did not kill him. At merely fourteen hours, he should not have been able to walk, nevertheless actually get away. This failure had more strength than ter Borcht had even realized when he had discovered the new, extreme, power. The power that could possibly destroy the world.

"Is ze homing beacon still in operation?" his voice came out in an overly threatening growl, and his assistant had to swallow before he could answer.

"Yes sir. It was not on before; we did not assume he would get away. It should show us his exact location in approximately two minutes."

There was no need for a reply, so ter Borcht left the shaking man where he stood. He was thankful for placing the homing beacon on the experiment before he woke up; clearly this had proved helpful. But this was not the thought that was bombarding the scientist's mind continuously. What he had to know was how. He had gone over his calculations thoroughly countless times before beginning the operation. He had made sure Tiberius had complete control over the jetpack, and it had been stored with fuel. The syringe had been loaded with something that would have killed an average human being in a matter of hours, with or without medication. He had studied the systems of the flock it was almost as if he knew them better than they themselves did. He had made sure his results were accurate. It should have lasted at least forty-eight hours.

But it didn't. In some odd twist of nature, it had not gone according to the flawless plan. That did not mean the operation would cease; he would create evil, diabolical lemonade out of the perfectly good lemons that were handed to him, and he would not let himself fail this time.

An evil smile crept across his face as the tracking monitor lit up, showing the coordinates of, not only the one previously held hostage, but most likely the rest of them, including the girl. Then the strongest, as well as the second strongest, forces in the world would be under his control.

They could run, but they could not hide. The locations of the bird-freak covered the screen in a bright red light. They showed about thirty miles away, and they could get there easily within ten minutes if they took the helicopter or jet. He decided quickly on the helicopter, knowing it would be easier to land and would probably cause less attention. Besides, everyone knows that a helicopter is the evil transportation of kidnappers.

'And if it isn't,' ter Borcht mused inside his head, 'I will make sure that it will be when the world is under my control.'

He summoned someone to ready the helicopter and the small union of genetically altered creatures which served as henchman for the horrible man, and climbed into the front seat. On the side of the vehicle were the words, "United States Army". No one, not even precious little Max and her gang of freaks would suspect it was him. It was going to be perfect.

They couldn't stop him. Nobody could.

Fang P.O.V

The next thing I knew after falling from the sky, I was lying safely on patch of grass in the middle of nowhere. How fast can you say weird?

Then I remembered Max. She must have been able to stop me from falling. Now that I thought about it, I decided that probably wasn't the best thing to do. I mean, give into the darkness and hope someone would catch me? God I sound like a girl. Apparently, though, my girlish thinking worked, because I didn't seem to be dead. How did I know this, you may ask? I don't think the dead could feel as much like crap as I did then.

I forced my eyelids open, and saw the flock walking seemingly aimlessly around me. Relief flooded through me as I saw them all, each of them safe and unharmed.

I opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a fit of coughing. Their heads turned toward me, and I met the eyes of five worried-yet-not-really bird kids staring back into mine. Not the entrance I was going for, but it would have to be enough.

"Good morning sleeping beauty!" Ah, Iggy. Never afraid to make some sort of sarcastic comment. If he were on the moon with no oxygen tank, he'd say something of the sort as he was passing out from lack of air.

I glared at him as my coughing subsided, and saw Max with her arms folded across her chest, her look telling me she was determined to find some information.

"Who was it?" She asked plainly, and the area occupied by us was silent.

"Good morning to you too, Max," I retorted. Hey, I never said Iggy was the only one.

Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth formed a frown. I rolled my eyes and briefly rolled over the fact that it was almost as if we'd switched personalities. I blamed it on the fact that I was poisoned by some random substance, and that she was a fourteen-year-old hormonal girl. Satisfied with my reasoning, I responded.

"It was ter Borcht." I saw no reason for a dramatic pause; that would only make people angry. And angry flock plus ter Borcht equals major uh-oh. In case you haven't been exactly informed on our, in a way, adventures, a major flock uh-oh could mean an international crisis. So a mere two seconds of cliff hangers could lead to a World War Three. Irony, anyone?

"WHAT?!" Max shouted, making my head go into self-destruct mode. She looked at me and mouthed, 'Sorry!' I gave her a thumbs-up sign in return.

"OK why and how?" She continued, desperate for some answers.

"Well 'why', because he, shocker, wanted to take over the world again, and how… I have no idea. Do you think he walks up to his prisoners and explains his life story?" I decided it was time to stop talking so much; I was ruining my reputation.

"Um, yeah, actually they tend to do that," she talked to me like I was a little kid, but I didn't speak in response, I had done enough rep-ruining talking to last me probably close to the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, that changed when I heard the blades of the helicopters, and I happened to be the only one to hear them. Oh, the joy.

I mentally kicked myself for talking so much earlier, but continued with the warning anyway.

"Um, hey Max?" she turned to face me, a quizzical expression on her face, "I think that our little crazy accent friend has decided to pay us a visit." Did I really have to make it that long?

Her confusion seemed to deepen, but then she heard the helicopter rotors making a chopping sound in the air, as it got closer and closer. By now, everyone had noticed, their expressions both surprised and nervous. I turned to look towards the direction the sound was coming from, and my face taking on a look of surprise, as well.

The helicopter had the words, "United States Army" written across the sides, but there was no way the army would actually come all the way out to the middle of nowhere just to find us. They would wait until we were in a city or something. How could they have even found us? By then I was sure the vehicle was coming for us, as it was starting its decent.

Then a thought occurred, one that was about as troublesome as it could get.

Had the United States sided with ter Borcht?

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_And it is finished!! YES!! Gosh that took me like 2 whole hours to write! Of course it was spread out over a course of like forever… but still! OK then this chapter is dedicated to Dan, even though he is being particularly annoying. Do ya wanna know why? Because he thinks the Twilight books are better than the Maximum Ride books. No, he's not gay, I would still be his friend if he was, but then I probably wouldn't be dating him so… ya but can you guys please help me prove to him that the flock can totally kick some major Cullen a$$? That would be awesome because the flock so out-everything's the vampire people. Well…. Bye for now!!!!_


	8. Return

_Hey people! A bit faster this time, huh? Things are about to get… well whatever they are about to get, haha! No previews here! Or like anywhere for that matter… ok so thanks a… whatever word that means a massive amount that a haven't used yet to the following peoples: tearsXsolitude for your 2__nd__ (YES!) review and Rainie16 for your 6__th__ (YAY!) review! And as I was going over them just a second ago I was all oh crap I don't know if I replied so… sorry ha I'm the absent-minded odd little duckling. :) Anywayz… let it begin!!_

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Max P.O.V

Ok, I'll admit it, a United States Army helicopter was nowhere near the top of my "expected" list, but that doesn't mean I let the shock go past my brain. Had you looked at me, you probably would have thought I had told them to come. As if I would ever do that, but still. Just an example.

I glanced around at the flock, and saw that they were all clearly confused by the words on the side, with the exception of Iggy, who just looked confused. Poor guy.

I shielded my eyes against the sun, trying to make out the features of the pilot through the glare bouncing off of the window shield. Finally the glare changed position, and I was able to see his face.

He was huge. Like a massive, living brick the size of a refrigerator. In other words, he was a rather large man. Another thing was that he was anticipating something. He had a giddy expression covering his face, looking like a little kid on their birthday morning and knew that he was getting exactly what he wanted. Let's hope he was a good little boy.

My hair was whipped in all different directions as the helicopter descended and finally landed on the soft, grass covered ground.

The door of the machine swung open with a hard "thud" against the side, probably causing nothing short of a massive dent. I found myself hoping that it wasn't my head next time.

One booted foot stepped out onto the earth, shortly followed by the other. The man followed his legs out the door, and was soon standing to face us. I then realized just how big the helicopter was. You could've probably fit a small elephant in there… definitely all of us could fit in there, with still a bunch of space left…

The man smirked, and my thoughts jumbled together to come to a single conclusion, though it was too late. He had pulled out a gun, and was deciding which one of us to point it at. Three other bozos came out to play, and they also had their own gun.

I gulped, but didn't let them see my fear which, trust me, I was feeling. What can I say; a bunch of big people with guns can do that to a person. I mean, the big wasn't so much a problem but none of us were bullet proof.

I followed the trails of where the bullets would end up, and saw one on Iggy, one on Nudge, one on Gazzy, and the last on Angel. Notice something missing?

"Um, you're short two," I pointed out what should have been obvious, "What are you, blind? There are six of us, not four."

Instead of a response, the man just changed the subject to something else. Talk about rude.

"We only need you two," he spoke in a monotone voice, and gestured two Fang and I, "And if you do not come, the others will die."

Well so much for fighting our way out. I glared at the big cement pile of joy, but made no attempt to get away.

"I guess you've heard I'm not exactly one to follow instructions." I was really having a bad week.

Before I got any response out of the gorilla person, someone else stepped out of the passenger side. Ter Borcht.

"Vy, hello, vou freaks! Good to see vou!" he exclaimed, false cheeriness dripping from his voice. He then turned his attention to Fang.

"I see vou have found your, dare I say, family. It is impressive that vou vere able to escape," he paused for a moment, pretending to reflect over the event, "But no matter. I vill make sure zat vill not happen again."

During the time which he had been talking, ter Borcht had made his way over to me. He looked me strait in the eye, and I stared back without so much as flinching. He then pushed me through the door of the helicopter, and I felt strong hands on my shoulders, keeping me in place. As if I would try and escape and risk m y flock getting hurt, or worse, killed. Not a chance.

I could barely see ter Borcht making his way toward Fang, and forcing him onto his feet, and ordering him to join me. I bit my lip, watching him struggle to stay on his feet. He made it halfway through before he tripped and fell onto his knees.

Ter Borcht's face filled with rage, and he grabbed a gun out of one of his henchmen's hands and whacked it across Fang's head. I could hear him gasp in pain, and blood was trickling down the side of his face.

Somehow, though I don't know how, he forced himself back up and continued to stumble toward the helicopter. He finally made it to the helicopter, and ter Borcht shoved him inside. Fang landed hard on the metal floor, and made no effort to stand back up. The man holding me let go and leapt after his 'master', who had already left. The door was slammed shut, and it left Fang and me alone in total darkness, with the exception of a small window, too high up to reach. It didn't matter, though, because it was too small to fit through.

I rushed over to where Fang was laying on the ground, and rolled him onto his back. The cut on his head was bleeding rapidly, and his eyes were closed. He was breathing heavily, signaling that even that short walk had been hard for him.

I was so going to kill ter Borcht.

"Fang?" I whispered, checking to see if he was conscious or not. I got no reply, so I assumed he had passed out.

Seeing him in that state for the second time, added to the fact that we were being taken somewhere undoubtedly bad, but that I didn't know the location of finally pushed me over the edge. I saw nobody to stay strong for, so I didn't.

The tears came freely, and almost silently. Almost. That was the only sound I could hear in the prison that currently housed Fang and me.

Now, don't get me wrong; Maximum Ride practically _never_ cries. But this was an exception. Everything had built up to this, and I needed to let it out somehow. For once, I wasn't sure if we would get out of this. After all, with the flock separated this way, we were nowhere near full strength. Ter Borcht had thought it out well.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, I wiped away my tears, and cleared my brain of those thoughts. We _would_ get out of this. Fang would live, I would live, and the flock would reunite. Somehow. Ter Borcht would _not_ win.

The sound of the helicopter rotors once again filled my ears, and I felt us being lifted into the air as we took flight.

If only I could say those words without the helicopter.

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_Okay sorry that was kinda short but it seemed like a good place to stop. Will they survive? You'll know eventually but, as I told you before, no spoilers here! Anywayz reviews are greatly appreciated! They make me one very happy absent-minded odd little duckling. Interesting nickname, huh? Haha well be happy!_


	9. Cormforting Words

HIHI!!! AAHHH PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!! I had writers block and then no internet for a grand total of a long time but I'm back now!! And I am SO SO SO sorry that I didn't respond to the reviews but I didn't want to respond to them if I hadn't updated in almost exactly 3 weeks! YAY!! No. Not yay… it's just an immediate response to something… anyway thanks so much to the following people: samzeman, rainie16 (omigosh 8th freaking time! You are awesome!), and MandKxo for your awesome reviewitiveness! :) YOU GUYS ROCK!! And if you don't have much pancientiveness, then you may want to skip the Nudgeitiveness part. :) So what are ya waiting for? READ PEOPLE READ!!

**Nudge P.O.V (talkativeness! Sorry. Hyper…)**

I watched as Max and Fang were shoved, though also dragged and hit, towards the helicopter, which now seemed to stand for some sort of, like, medieval torture zone in the form of modern flying technology. Though still in the same basic path. Torture zone, I mean. Stupid ter Borcht, doing all that illegal crap. But then what was up with the government helicopter? THE FREAKING _GOVERNMENT!!!_ Now everybody was out to get us… yay.

As the freakish-like creepy government (as-if) evil helicopter took off from the ground, the guns from the henchmen losertards never changed their aim from me, Iggy, and Gazzy. Max and Fang were in there. They might never come back. But I knew they would they had to. Didn't they? If they didn't I had no idea what would happen. I doubted we would even survive. We had to rescue them. But how? Wow that was a lot of short and choppy brain waves…. Oh well not like anybody was like reading my thoughts or anything… that would be creepy. Like ultra super creepy, unless it was Angel, but she didn't seem to be exactly focused on me.

Which reminded me; more important things to worry about. The leader and the vice leader were now kidnapped with no hopes of getting out anytime soon, and even if they had any hope eventually, it would not exactly be a simple task. More like close to impossible.

Suddenly, Iggy broke through my never-ending thoughts with one simple sentence:

"What do we do now?"

All four of us glanced at each other, and had no answer. We had no plan, no nothing.

This was not going to be hard, it was going to be whatever another word similar to hard but like way more challenging is… if that makes sense. Suddenly, a thought dawned on me, and, as horrible as it was, I realized it was true.

'We might not get out of this one.'

**Fang P.O.V **

**(Measurement is in Fahrenheit) **

I cracked open my eyes, and was grateful to notice that it was dark. The only light in the room- scratch that, I had no idea where it was coming from. It was like BAM disoriented. After a few moments, I became somewhat… err… oriented… I guess.

Anyway, I pushed myself of the ground into a sitting position and took in my surroundings. IT didn't take long; I mean it was basically four gray walls, a dirt floor, freezing cold, with a little lump in the corner…

Wait. Not a lump, a person. Max. I made my way over to her, which took longer than about six feet should have, but I still got there, and put my hand on her shoulder.

She slowly opened her eyes, and looked back up at me, her green orbs shining even in the dull light.

"Hey." I whispered. I know, I need to work on the speech thing, but I'm not really a talker. Hey, with all the talking Nudge does, someone needs to offer some silence.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Max gave me a small grin as she responded.

"Um, shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Okay, come on, who went back in time and changed the whole meaning of that term?

"You were out for three days. I think it's safe for me to say that to you."

I was quiet for a few seconds. Two days? That was a personal record. Not necessarily a great one, but still. A record. Just wanted you to know.

I pretended like I didn't hear her, which I did quite often so it's not as if it's unusual or anything, and went on with a different, more important question,

"Do you know where we are?" my voice seemed to echo off of the prison wall, and I noticed subconsciously that there were no doors, just a little barred window which was just above my eye-level (found where the light was coming from!). No escape routes whatsoever.

"Not sure… but it's somewhere cooler, I mean it's probably about sixty five to seventy degrees out there. And there are a heck of a lot of trees… so that narrows it down to everything higher up than Texas or lower down than the bottom of Africa…" she bit her lip I accepted that we could be practically anywhere.

"Good to know." Though I wasn't sure if she was right about the temperature… it was freezing! I shivered and stared out the little peephole to the grass dancing in the wind.

"You okay?" Max asked, her face laced with concern. She treated me like such a little kid sometimes!

"Ya just a little cold… are you sure I didn't sleep till winter or something?" She stared back at me with a frown and placed her hand on my forehead. Her fingers felt like ice, and I shrugged away from her touch.

"Man, your still burning up!" she exclaimed, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Still? What exactly have I missed?" there was no way that injection thing was still messing me up, was there?

"Well," she began, "Once the helicopter landed here, they injected us with something, but the effects wore off on me ages ago. I thought that when you woke up you'd be okay and we could beat up a few whitecoats and get of here, but now I guess the kicking of the butts will be temporarily postponed." She sent me a small smile, and I gave a semi-grin in return.

But what was up with the whole injection thing? Maybe they had given me too much too early? I mean the first little happy serum obviously hadn't worn off by the time they came in with their big fancy flying machine and brought us to this place.

"So have they done anything so far? I mean, ya know test related?" I seriously needed to work on the whole 'communicate with other human beings' thing, but that was not the time for such things.

"Not much… they just wanted some research on the 'new and interesting' things like the whole breathing underwater and some not so new stuff like how fast I could fly, which they did in enclosed areas although they were so huge I thought they were open air and that I could actually escape and bring the flock back and we could get you out." She was quiet for a moment then laughed, "You can imagine the shock I got when I smacked my face into that glass wall." She smiled as she finished her sentence.

"I can imagine," I stated simply, almost grinning, but I had done enough of the out-of-character stuff recently, and I was really starting to get on my nerves. If that makes sense. Having a muddled brain really sucks.

"Yeah, well soon we're gonna bust _out_ of this place, not _into _it," Max stated, sounding one hundred percent positive, which I'm not sure she was, "And, I mean, we've been in worse spots before. The rest of the flock will come up with something! I mean, we have a little mind controller on our sides, do we not? Plus they might not even take us back to the school. So cheer up!" Good pep talk.

"Um, I never said I was-"

"And I mean, it's not like we're gonna die out here!" she was sounding less sure and closer to breaking down with every sentence, "Don't even consider that! It's not an option! And don't worry; the rest of the flock will be fine. They won't starve to death or get eaten by some sort of mutant creature thing and-"

"MAX!" I shouted, interrupting her miniature rant, "Okay, I don't think _I _was the one who needed the pep talk! And about all that stuff, chill out! I mean I don't mean to blow it off as nothing, but the rest of the kids can handle themselves!" AH! I WAS TALKING SO DANG MUCH! "Just go a little easier on yourself. You haven't trained them to be helpless idiots! You've trained them to be strong and to fight for themselves and-" I broke off coughing, unable to finish the sentence, which was good cuz I had no idea what I was going to say next. But two things had been accomplished: I had just broken my record for the most stuff said at one time (the second irksome record that day), and I now had an excuse not to talk.

Max closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall.

"Sorry," she whispered.

I gave her a quizzical look, and she continued.

"I should be giving you the encouragement you gave me. I mean, I'm perfectly fine and you're, well, far from it yet you're the one telling me it's going to be okay, and I'm the one who's freaking out and being all pessimistic! What happened to me being the leader?" God do all girls have mood swings like that? Or is it just the ones genetically altered with bird DNA? Cuz a little bit ago she was talking about how everything was la-di-da and how it was _soooo_ funny when she crashed into the glass wall and laughing and happy and then BANG! SADNESS!

By now my little painful friend had gone back into its little cave or wherever (but don't worry; it left friends!), and I looked Max strait in her beautiful eyes. WAIT! NO! I DID **NOT** JUST SAY THAT!! But, oh look, there it is, in writing. Yay. But anyway, I spoke quietly in response,

"I'm not blaming you, and you have no reason to be sorry. You have the whole world resting on your shoulders. You take care of the entire flock, and you have been for a long time. And, Max, you're fourteen. No fourteen-year-old should have to deal with that, but out of some horrible twist of fate, _you_ do. And you've been doing a better job than anybody or any living thing in the whole universe could have ever hoped to do. You have the right to need some encouragement every once in a while, because even the hero can't be perfect all the time."

She looked down at the ground, and I could see her bite her lip. I knew that she was unsure if she was really good enough to save the world, but I knew she was.

"But no matter what happens," I continued, "You're still the closest thing to perfect I've ever seen. You will get out of here, and you will save the world. But you won't have to do it alone."

"Do you really think so?" Max returned her gaze to meet mine, and I placed my hand over hers.

"I know so."

Wow… the end had so much more Fax-ness than originally intended… ah well I never do things the way I plan which reminds me I need to change the summary to fit the revised plot… which I should have done like a month ago but I am forgetful… and since the original plot gave me the reason for the title, does anybody have any ideas for a new title that would fit the story a little bit better? Well anyhoo time to upload to the internet!! YAYETH!!!


	10. Another Enemy?

_HI! Wow thanks for the awesome reviews you guys gave me :) Thanks for not giving up on me! You rock! SO, thank you to the following awesome people:_

_..moon.135 (also thanks for adding me to your story alerts =D), rainie16 (omj you soooo rock! 8 times is amazing!), and, last but most certainly not least, tearsXsolitude!!!! You guys are, like, masters in the art of reviewing! Anywayz let's start the chapter before I get to the point where I will never shut up:_

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**Iggy P.O.V**

We were in quite the suckish situation. How about I give you a list instead of figuring out how to use interesting language to make it sound better than it is! Here goes:

Nudge: Don't even get me started. This girl is coming up with all sorts of ideas on how to 'totally, like, fly in and then be all butt-kickingly awesome!' and then out of nowhere starts sobbing about how 'ohmigod we're never gonna find them what if we, like, die?' It's so freaking annoying!

Gazzy: He is being quite the little trooper, though he seems to yell quite a bit more. Sorta like, 'Hey, Gazzy, what do ya want for dinner?' 'What do you _think?_ It's always the same thing, all the time! WE HAVE NO VARIETY!' Otherwise he doesn't talk, which is good and bad, depending on how ya look at it.

Angel: She's turned into something quite similar to a little mini Napoleon. Well, not really, cuz I mean he wasn't exactly tall, if you know what I mean. But more like a younger, feminine version, just not evil and bent on taking over the entire world. Just the rest of the flock. And, in case you didn't know, it isn't all that hard to do if you have mind control powers, which, of course, she does. It just _had_ to be the little one with all the cool powers, didn't it? Ugh.

As for me? I guess I was pretty much normal, if you count being a blind, bomb-building, car-jacking, color-feeling, mutant bird-kid normal. If I were you, I wouldn't, but I'm not you, and, therefore, it is perfectly normal. Except for the fact that I was in charge with absolutely no idea how to control three kids! Yay Iggy!

I admit it, I was worried… I mean they _were_ pretty much my siblings (although they were completely in love with each other so I was gonna have to stop referring to them that way soon…), and they could be dead. Or almost dead. Or gravely injured, like I knew Fang pretty much was.

Can you say shitake mushrooms?

Anyways, it was dark outside and the flock was sleeping peacefully. At least, I assumed it was dark out, considering it was night and all, but hey, what do I know? I was thinking about where we should look in our next (most likely fruitless) attempt to find Max and Fang, when I heard someone (or something) walking around close to where we were.

Seeing as it was past two in the morning and in the absolute middle of nowhere, you could say I was confused. And curious. Confusedly curious.

"Um, hello?" I whispered, really hoping that it wasn't some creature who wanted to kill me, "Is anyone there?"

I got no response, so I stood and walked closer to where I had head the footsteps. After I took around fifty steps, I called out again, this time in a regular voice,

"Hello?" I heard a low growl coming from my left, and another to my right. A third came from right in front of me.

'Well, crap,' I thought, and I could detect them getting closer to me. The thing that annoyed me was that I had no idea if they were normal animals or something much worse.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to figure it out. All three (or were there more?) leaped at me at the same time, and I knocked two out of the way before they could touch me. I heard them hit the ground whimpering. The third wolf (?) managed to knock me to the ground, and its claws dug into my skin. I pushed it off, and it dragged its paws dragged across my chest, leaving four deep (and rather painful) cuts. I cried out in pain, not hearing the rest of the flock waking up.

I heard more growls, and they seemed to be coming from every direction. If I could see, I can assure you that the world would have been spinning around and around and around and so on so forth. I, along with the ground around me, was becoming soaked in my blood, and I didn't take that as a good thing.

The growling continued, and I sat up, ready to fend them off as well as I could. My right arm was wrapped around my chest, and I was breathing heavily, but there was still no way that I was going down without a fight.

But suddenly, I heard a bunch of yells, and the sounds of a fight going on around me. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I was safe for the time being.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the fighting stopped. By then, I was hardly aware of anything going on around me, but I could tell that at least the bleeding had slowed. But I didn't care; I was so tired I just wanted to go to sleep.

"Iggy?" I heard Angel ask. I was lying down again, so they probably thought that I was like dead or something.

"I'm awake," I stated, then asked, "So… were those things, ya know, normal?"

"Far from it," I heard Nudge answer. Well, it was good to know that I didn't just get defeated by some normal creature!

"Yeah!" Gazzy cut in, sounding exited, "They were, like the red but there was orange waves and the waves moved! IT WAS SO COOL! And the tip of their tails were solid black but they were shining like onyx!" I grinned at the irony of the fact that these creatures would probably become our next sworn enemies and Gazzy was acting like they were some famous movie stars or something. Well, if he was going to be fighting them he might as well be excited about it.

"Plus," Angel added, "Their claws were golden and they were, like shining even though it's dark out!"

But it didn't hear her. A searing hot feeling erupted in my head and spread all the way throughout my body. I felt myself lifting off the ground, but I didn't even acknowledge that that was strange. I screamed louder than I ever had before, agony ripping through my voice. I felt, more than heard, Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge gasp as they watched this happening.

Somehow, during all this, I heard Nudge yell out something that made this situation even stranger,

"Iggy, you're glowing!"

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_Sorry that was so short! But I seriously was like running on empty at the end of the chapter and I tried to write more but I came up with nothing… sorry! I promise the next one will be longer! :)Anywayz I really hope that I figure out what those wolf things are before I start the next chapter… ah well that's what I get for changing the plot of the chapter on a second's notice! But it is more fun that way sooo…. Please review! And, as I mentioned in the last chapter, I need to change the name of this to something more fitting, so does anybody have any ideas? If you do please share!_


	11. Fear

_HIII!!! I am very very very very very very veerrrrryyy sorry for not updating in over a month! I have been attacked by the oboe!!! Haha! My sincerest apologies (not that that means much XD)! And, before we get this thing rolling, there are a few (shnawesome!) people I would like to thank:_

_Rainie16 for your (9__th__!! Whoa!!) review, tearsXsolitude for your (4__th__!!!) review, and Midge 1012 (1__st__ review!! Please continue this happy habit!), and__verbalalchemist for adding me to your story alerts page! :) You guys are rockingly awesome!_

**Chapter 11**

**Max P.O.V**

The door slammed loudly against the stone walls, causing dust and small rocks to fall down from the ceiling, and sending shudders through the floor. The previous silence was shattered, and my neck snapped up and focus flew to the door way, where ter Borcht, along with four abnormally large men (though one may have been a woman), stood with no emotion displayed across their evil faces.

My face immediately hardened into a glare, and I knew Fang was probably wearing the same expression. I felt his grip around my hand tighten just a little, and I felt a little balloon of happiness begin to rise inside of me. I forced it back down, realizing that this was so not the type of situation that it happy balloons belonged in.

"What do you want?" My voice cut through the tension like a knife, but I got no reply. Our friendly little visitors just kept walking toward me and Fang, obviously not about to stop.

Suddenly, they broke into a run, charging at the two of us at full force. Two of the massive gorillas grabbed me and held me so firmly that I could hardly move (not that I didn't try…), and started to drag me toward the door. The other two went after Fang, and shoved him against the wall, holding him there. I heard his head smack against the hard wall with a horrible crack, and I began to struggle harder against the people holding me.

"Let me go!" I yelled, kicking with all my might at their legs, and elbowing their stomachs, yet they didn't as much as grunt. What were these guys? My mind pored over so many possibilities that I couldn't have kept track of them even if I wanted to, and none of the answers were good ones.

The dynamic duo had almost succeeded in getting me to the door, when I heard Fang say something, barely loud enough for me to hear.

"Leave her alone," The tone of his voice made my eyes widen. It didn't even sound like him; it was almost as if he had been taken over by some horribly evil spirit. He was looking toward the dirt floor, and his face was hidden so that I couldn't see the expression on his face.

"Oh yeah?" The bigger of the two men holding me responded, pulling me tighter in an intimidating way, "And what if we don't wanna let her go? What are you gonna do 'bout it!"

The last line came out like less of a question, more of a mockery, but I didn't even begin to care.

Fang said nothing, and didn't move from his position, but I could tell he was watching every action that was taking place. He was watching the man go beyond inappropriate with his hands, and his companions laughing.

I squeezed my eyes shut, and tried to ignore him creeping up my body, mentally cursing myself for being so useless and unable to protect myself. I wanted so badly to get free and hurt somebody (preferably giant freako numero uno), but I couldn't mover; it was as if every part of me was stuck together.

Suddenly, his hands fell from my sides. I sighed in relief, and slowly opened my eyelids. My mouth fell partially open at what I saw, and the bozos released their grip on me.

"I told you," Fang spoke again, this time louder, "To leave her alone."

At least, I thought it was Fang, but, to be honest, I wasn't one-hundred percent sure.

He was there, but his eyes were a deep blood red, and his body was outlined in a faint, glowing black. Everything was dead still for a moment, but then Fang let out a yell that would have made Ares wet his pants.

Anything even I thought impossible was proven wrong in just a few moments; bricks were somehow shaken loose from their places in the wall and were flying around the room, smacking against our captors with a force that Superman couldn't have created if he had thrown them with all his might.

Red lightning flew from Fang's fingertips, taking down anybody not destroyed by the bricks, and even the living mountains themselves were soon unconscious (if not dead) on the floor. Somehow, ter Borcht had managed to get away, though I was sure he'd be back.

Still wearing a frightened look on my face, I turned my gaze to where Fang was standing. The bricks were still flying around the room, and the lightening still surrounded his hand. He slowly turned to face me, but he didn't calm down. I suddenly felt myself being thrown into the wall, and held there by some invisible force, my feet not touching the ground.

Fang's face was filled with anger, and suddenly every hard, damage-inflicting object was grouped together, almost like an army. With a flick of his wrist, everything morphed together to become a long, horribly sharp spear of some sort, and it was aimed directly at me.

"Fang?" I asked, trying to keep my voice strong, "It's me, Max! You got rid of all of ter Borcht's henchmen; you can stop fighting now! You don't want to hurt me, do you?" I nearly whispered the last part. Nothing, not flyboys or erasers or being in that horrible isolation tank had managed to scare me this much before, and I never thought that anything would. And, if I had had to guess what might make the cut, I would never, ever had come close to saying Fang's name.

I must not have gotten through to him, because, with him hardly moving at all, the formerly-brick weapon began flying in a path toward my neck. I drew in a quick breath as it got closer to me, but was confused when it didn't pierce my skin.

Without moving my head (I would have, if not for the fact that it was being held in place), I adjusted my vision so that I could see next to me. And there was the spear, at no angle whatsoever, and completely supported… by the wall. Fang had managed to make it fly through the air so hard that it was lodged a good two or three inches into the concrete bricks, missing my neck by about a centimeter.

The invisible support disappeared before I had time to react to my narrow survival, and I fell to the ground. My breath came in quick gasps as I tried to calm myself down, not so much from almost dying, but from the fact that it was Fang who had tried to do it.

I glanced up at him, hurt etched across my face, just as tears were streaming down his. His eyes were wide, and he seemed both shocked and ashamed. He took a step toward me, and, out of instinct, I moved back a little bit, not wanting to become a victim of his ability. The red had faded from his eyes, but I was so afraid that it would come back, and that he wouldn't miss when he launched something at me.

"Max," he whispered, but I avoided eye contact, "I'm so sorry."

I bit my lip and shut my eyes, trying so hard not to cry; after all, Fang was my right-wing man, the one who was always there for me….

'And I may have just lost him forever…' I thought sullenly.

I heard him stumble as he walked away, and I allowed myself to look, confident that he was no longer facing me.

What I saw didn't exactly comfort me; Fang was leaning against the wall, his legs shaking as they tried to support him. Ordinarily, I would have jumped up to help him without a second thought, but after what just happened, I just couldn't.

I regretted my decision only a few moments later when he fell to his knees, the wall not providing enough help. I quickly got over my fear and kneeled next to him, though I was careful not to be too close.

We made eye contact for only a second, before he lost all strength, and fell to the floor, eyes fluttering shut.

It was a long time before he opened them again.

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_Ok, well, not my favorite chapter cuz there wasn't much sarcasm... and i freaking live for sarcasm!!! And sorry if it got kinda... er... creepy... at some parts but i had to do something that made Fang mad so... i chose that!! Haha and did it make you sad toward the end or is that just me having a random hyper-emotional bout? Ah well... and, I am still trying to think of a better title (my brain is having trouble shaking off summer haha), so help is highly appreciated!! Thanks for reading, and please review!!!_


	12. Time and Lockdown

_Hiya!! Sorry I took so long! I got grounded… and still am grounded but I don't really care anymore so… here I am!!! You guys are awesome reviewers! Here are the amazing people who reviewd:_

_Rainie16 (shnoly shnap!! 10 reviews!! YOU ROCK!!!!) and tearsXsolitude (5__th__!!! w00t!!!)!! You guys are great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

**Disclaimer:** Yes, hello, I'm James Patterson, the 14-year-old girl writing on a fan website! I mean, why write the next book and charge money for it when I can post it here and people can read it for free!! **CLEARLY** I am **NOT** James Patterson, and hopefully nobody thought I was.

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**Chapter 12**

**Iggy P.O.V**

Okay, great. I was glowing. Not that that made any difference to me, the blind pyromaniac. If nothing was on fire and there was no BOOM, then I didn't tend to care.

However, the rest of the situation was rather interesting. For example, every part of me felt like it had its on miniature bomb built inside of it… _except _for the place those multi-colored wolf-things of fun had chosen to cut open. That part actually felt kind of warm and fuzzy.

Speaking of wolves… **why** did they hate us so much? It's not like we ever did anything to them!! First the erasers, then the flying erasers, now the wolves out of a child's coloring book… what was up with that? Did they have extra DNA lying around or what?

Right as I was beginning to get into the complications of DNA, everything stopped. Like, literally stopped. The pain stopped, the warm fuzzy stopped (sadly) and the talking stopped. It was then that I realized my eyes were closed.

I decided to open them, mainly to prove that I wasn't dead, and saw _everything._ My mouth fell open, and I was so shocked I didn't even realize that I was the only thing moving for about thirty seconds, and I only realized it at all because, for once, Nudge wasn't talking.

I slowly stood up, and waved by hand back and forth quickly in front of Gazzy's face. He didn't so much as follow my hand. I could tell none of them were breathing. IT was as if everything on earth had died but me.

'Or maybe,' I thought, 'It's the other way around.'

Was that it? What happened when you died? You just stayed in that exact moment forever, all alone? Frozen in time?

I glanced up at the star-studded sky, and wondered if they would ever be hidden by the sun again, and if I would ever hear the sound of another living thing breathing again.

I closed my eyes again and took a deep breath. Suddenly, everything started again. Startled, I opened my eyes… only to find everything was black again. I was back to being blind.

I heard Nudge gasp in front of me and shout, "Ohmygosh! Where'd he go? He was just here! Is he, like, invisible or something?!?!?"

"Yes," I said sarcastically, "I am completely invisible. Just make sure not to turn around, or my powers will be gone."

Everyone whipped around quickly, and the air was filled with, "How did you do that?" and "Wow" and "You can do stuff now!" That last one was not particularly favored.

"Thank you, Angel, you make me feel so special," I heard her mutter 'You're welcome,' and a few giggles before continuing, "And, if you must know, it was like time stopped. I could see and I just walked over here while you guys were, um, frozen I guess. And then it started, and I became blind again. Oh, and by the way, Nudge, that is not an appropriate outfit for twelve-year-olds." Although she did look nice in it.

I heard her disapproving 'Huff!" but otherwise, everyone was quiet. Mentally, I did a little cheer that I could cause a shocked silence, but let nothing show on my face.

"So" Gazzy began, "Can you, like, stop time or something now?"

Hm. I guess that that possibility had never really entered my mind.

"Er, yeah, I guess. I mean, it might have been some freak thing but, I think I can."

"So… yes?" That kid could be as thick as a landfill sometimes.

"Yes, Gazzy!! I am pretty sure that I can stop time!!"

"Can you speed it up? Or just put it on slow mo?"

"I don't know!" I shouted, "When have I had time to test it?!?!"

"Riight…" He said slowly. Nothing was said for a while, then suddenly Nudge piped up,

"So what about skipping it?"

Now that was something I'd like to try.

**Max P.O.V**

**4 days Later**

It had been four days since Fang had gone psychopath on me, and four days since I had seen his eyes. As of right then, I was pretty sure that I'd have been okay with it even if they were shining red again. Heck, they could have been rainbow for all I cared! All I wanted was for them to be open.

I sighed, and rested my head back against the wall I was currently leaning against. It was the same as always: cold, hard, and gray. The whitecoats had moved Fang and I into a new, solid steel room after the rather messy events that took place in the last one.

I thought back to all the times people (or voices) had told me that it was my destiny to save the world. To protect everybody. No, though, i was considering what that really meant. Did it mean that I was supposed to _help_ somebody stronger than me, or did it mean that I would have to save it _from_ somebody stronger than me? Somebody like…

I wasn't going to go there. The world wasn't going to need saving from him. He wouldn't ever hurt anybody.

'Would he?" My thoughts were sullen, and I bit my lip, glancing over at Fang, who was lying on the floor, his chest rising and falling.

It was all so quiet… there was no Nudge babbling, no Iggy yelling at her to stop, no Gazzy setting off a bomb, no Total complaining about dog food, no Angel reading my mind… Part of me liked it, but most of it wanted the noise back. Wanted the craziness. I would have taken being in a fight with erasers if that's what it took to get my flock back.

Wasn't I supposed to be the leader? Wasn't I supposed to be the one trying to come up with a rescue plan, not waiting to be rescued myself? I was the one everybody looked up to, and yet there I was, sitting in a cell and not even trying to get out.

The door was opened suddenly at one end of the room. I glanced up half-heartedly, expecting it to be some white coat with plastic-like food on a tray, and was surprised to see simply two new gorillas and ter Borcht, not a weapon or (unfortunately) tray of food in sight.

"What do you want?" I whispered. With my right-wing man down, there wasn't much fight left in me. It was as if something had gone and sucked it out with a vacuum.

"Ve need to vrun a few tests," he spoke with that stupid accent of his, "Both of vou. Ve need both of vou." He said it twice as if to add more impact or fear, but all I did was blink slowly, waiting for the rush of normal Max to kick in.

"And what makes you think I'm gonna let that happen?" My voice was calm, bored-sounding, and ter Borcht held out his arm to stop the goons from taking me by force.

"Because if vou don't" he smiled evilly, and I glared, "Vere are many things ve can do to make sure vou never see _him_ alive again."

I gulped, knowing that they would just as easily go through with this threat as I Iggy would make a pan of scrambled eggs.

Seeing no other option, I made my way to the door, only to find it slam shut in my face.

My eyes widened as it was sealed off, making it so that the small crack showing the separation between the door and the wall was no longer visible. I stepped back quickly, hearing an alarm blaring throughout the building. I looked toward Fang, but he hadn't moved. Something else was causing this.

Before I could contemplate any further, it all stopped. The alarm shut off, the faint yells that I had been hearing from the hallways were silenced, and the metal covering the door slid away.

It opened once again, showing the same people it had previously, though Borchty looked pretty pissed off.

"Stupid security system," he muttered, "Goes off vhen there's no vone, stays silent vhen zere is."

He shook his head in disapproval, and I almost started laughing. Almost. The reminder of the conversation took the happiness right out of me. Again.

"Now." He spoke with an air of purpose, "Vhere vere ve? Ah, yes! The tests! Now, Maximum, if vou vill come vith me, they vill begin and vour friend vill live."

I took a deep, shuddering breath, and followed. Behind me, brick wall A was dragging Fang by his shirt, clearly seeing no reason for a more gentle approach. I gave the living mountain a death stare before continuing to follow ter Dork down the narrow and twisting hallways.

Finally, we reached a door at the end (why is it **always** the end?) of one of the steel pathways, and I was immediately shoved down onto a hard gurney. Before I could react, metal bars flew over my wrists, and my attempts to struggle against them were of no prevail. To my right, the same was done to Fang, only he was more thrown onto it, seeing as, being unconscious and all, he didn't really put up much of a fight.

I was close enough to see the flush marks on his cheeks, and to hear his ragged but quiet breathing. It seemed like his fever seemed to be off and on; it would be there, and then it would leave. But as for now, I could practically feel the heat radiating off of him. Would this happen every time he used those powers? I shuddered at the thought.

A scientist's voice snapped me out of my reverie, and I looked up to see a needle heading strait toward my neck.

"Now this won't hurt a bit," Her voice taunted.

It always hurt.

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**IMPORTANT:**

**The title of this story is now going to be changed from Where, oh, Where to: Broken Wings Still Fly **

_And that was chapter 12!! I hope you enjoyed it!! And what do you think about the title? Let me know! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!_


	13. NotFutures and Randomly Iggy

_SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG!!! Again!! AAAHHHH I AM A MONSTER!!! And now, the _**_Fang_**_tastic people (get it? MUAHAHAHAHA!!!) who reviewed and… stuff_

_tearsXsolitude (6th Review!! You are amazing!!!), Rainie16 (11th review!!! OH YA!!!!!), cloud74 (youeth rocketh!) Thank you sooo much for adding me to your fav stories list, and samzeman for doing pretty much everything!!! WOOT!!!!!! You are AWESOME!!:)(:!! YOU GUYS ARE MY BUDDIES!!!!!!!_

_And now, we begin…. DUN DUN DDDDDUUUUUNNNN!!!_

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**Chapter 13**

Fang P.O.V

I was alone. That's the first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes. Max was nowhere in sight. In fact nothing was in sight. Everything around me was pitch black, but somehow, I could still see myself clearly. It was not something that I had experienced before.

Speaking of before, what had happened, anyway? I remembered those stupid men, and Max, and then after that… I only remember seeing the room destroyed, and a spear thrown (or something like that) by me almost… almost killing Max. And those men… they were buried under all those bricks… had I killed them?

After what they had done to Max, I hoped so. They would never go near her again. Ever.

As soon as I had started thinking about Max, she had started taking shape ahead. She was there… but it was like she wasn't. It was real, I mean I could feel the floor beneath my feet, but I wasn't there… really…

Before I could finish contemplating whether she was there or not, another person began to form from the shadows.

Their short blonde hair was sweaty, and plastered against their forehead, and their eyes closed. They weren't breathing; dead. Then their face came into focus, and I saw it was Gazzy.

The same happened to every member of the flock, until the only ones left alive were Max and me. She was sobbing, on her knees, surrounded by their bodies. Her worst fear.

She looked up, her eyes focused on somebody standing in the shadows. They walked slowly towards her, and I realized that it was me. But I wasn't there to comfort her. My eyes were glowing red, and there was red lightning sparking from my fingertips, and there was no expression on my face.

"Fang, don't," I heard her say, her voice hard with anger, "This isn't you. Not who you really are. I don't want to fight you."

We (sort of) met eyes for a moment, but then the lightning surged five times brighter, and shot forward to hit her in the chest. The real me screamed as I watched the life leave her eyes, her body flying backwards, joining her friends, my friends…

"Excellent," I heard a man's evil voice, and could tell he was grinning by the way he was speaking. A twisted, horrible smile.

Everything disappeared then, revealing that my eyes were closed. I opened them slowly, watching the room spin as I did so. It had all been a dream. But how? I was actually there. My face was wet, and I reached up to dry it before Max was able to see. Once she had seen me cry, and that was as much as she was going to get.

"Did you enjoy your future, Fang?" The same voice came from in front of me, showing a tall man, maybe six-four, in a white lab coat coming toward me.

"That's not my future," my voice was cold, like steel.

"Oh, but it is," he gave a light laugh, as if we were discussing the weather in a park, "That's what the serum does. And, since you were already unconscious, we didn't have to sedate you for it to work. Your girlfriend wasn't so lucky."

I felt fury rising up from my chest, but I said nothing, did nothing. If I did, I might go lightning crazy again, and if I could help it, I wasn't ever going to use that power again, no matter what it was for.

"And now, she is probably having the same dream you just did. Watching you kill her mercilessly, without even a second thought. You did it to everyone else, too… even little Angel. How does it feel, to know that someday, you are going to murder a little girl? Only seven years old."

I didn't know what I wanted to do more, kill this guy or throw up.

"And better yet, you're going to destroy everything your girlfriend has worked so hard to preserve. But that's not all! You're going to make every single person in the world feel that same way."

Okay, maybe I _was_ going to use that power on him. And send a huge thing of lightning right up his irksome $$

"Do you really want to do that Fang? Risk losing control again? This time you might not miss."

Uno: He's right, I wouldn't miss. His butt would be fried in one shot.

Dos: Thou shalt not read thy enemy's mind, unless thou's name is Angel.

Um… Three: Does he want me to destroy the world or use logic? Can't have both, buddy!

**Iggy P.O.V**

Have you ever **really** wished you had something that **really** annoyed you before? In this case, it was Fang's laptop. Never really liked it before (he's like a girl on that thing… 'Like, OMG! I **have** to tell my cyber-friends how many robots we just blew up! Hehe!'), but now having a computer, and Nudge, we could probably track down where Max and Fang were. But we don't have a computer. So we're screwed.

On the bright side, I am the master of time!! WOO!!! Well, sorta… I just can't really… _choose_ when I'm the master, it kinda just happens. It'll probably just start zipping through everything when we're in the line for McDonalds, and slow everything down when we're fighting the evil people. But hey, faster food, right?

But those wolf things… that was **weird**. Of course, I hadn't had the pleasure of actually seeing them, but from what I heard about them… and apparently they give out new powers, too! That was nice… a rather painful way to do it, but still nice.

Anyway, we were flying over more grass (SHOCK!), trying to find a place to eat, and were quite bored. The only person talking was Nudge, and nobody was really listening. It was more mood swing stuff that more annoyed a person than kept them occupied, so better off not to. Then suddenly, she screamed.

"MOUNTAIN!!" She shouted. Huh? Where on earth did this mountain come from? We were over the grasslands, like two minutes ago… Maybe I hit a hidden fast-forward button?

I didn't have time to contemplate the possibilities, because at that moment, I flew into the side of said mountain, and suddenly, everything was silent.

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_YAY!! I FINALLY FINISHED!! NOT SO FABULOUS ENDING, BUT STILL FINISHED!! YEAH!!!!!!! Ahem… anywayz… I hope you liked it, although it was kind of awkwardly random, but hey, that's what I get for writing over the span of multiple weeks and completely losing my train of thought!! So… HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING AND PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!_


	14. Again

_HIIII!!!!! Um... wow... over a month.... SORRY!!!! YET AGAIN!!! So, extra big thank you to doodlechick12 for giving me an amazing review, Rainie16 for your also amazing review (you are VERY good at reviewing, my friend! I think that's 12 reviews now... YOU ROCK!), and samzeman for an also AWESOME REVIEW!! YA'LL ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

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**Chapter 14**

**Iggy P.O.V**

Ugh. Ever smacked into a mountain while flying at full speed? No? Well, it hurts. Not so much when the lights go out (no pun intended), everything's la di da then, it's when you leave dreamland that it becomes a problem.

"Um, hello?" I asked, trying to stop my brain from rattling around in my harder-than-necessary skull.

"IGGY!!!!!!!" Guess who?

"Hey, Nudge," I muttered. Loud much? Wow… I sure was the complainer that day.

"You're awake!" Gazzy.

"Yup, the king of explosions has returned to the living. Where's Angel?" She usually starts intruding my brain's privacy about… thirty seconds after I wake up.

"Oh! She's out getting strawberries! They're ripe again!!!" Mental note: Never, EVER allow Nudge to have coffee. Not an experiment I am excited to try.

"Yeah, cuz we all know how well that ended up last time," Gazzy sounded less than thrilled about his sister's whereabouts. I couldn't say I was, but all this time, _we_ didn't even have any idea where we were, nevertheless did _they_ (whoever _they_ were anymore… ter Borcht, the government, whatever) have even a remote idea of what continent we might possibly be on.

"Hey, be positive," I knew how hypocritical I was being, but it was something, "We're currently not dead, and nobody is completely alone. We're together, and Max and Fang are together. Could be worse, right?" Woo! Pep talk extraordinaire!

"Yeah, they're together in more ways than one!" Gazzy was barely able to keep his laughter contained until he finished his sentence. Then, it filled the cave and you couldn't hear anything else. Soon, everybody was laughing along with him.

Maybe we could do this.

**Max P.O.V**

My eyes snapped open, and I sat bolt upright from where I was laying. Actually, about half a centimeter into the process, I discovered I was strapped down, so it was a fail. But it sounded cool, right?

Breathing hard, I tried to get my heart to slow down, tried to force that horrible nightmare from my brain. He would never, ever… would he? Fang wouldn't kill me. He wouldn't even make a scratch on _any of us._

It took me awhile to realize that my cheeks were wet; I must've been crying in my sleep. It made sense, of course. Would _you_ cry if you're whole family had just been murdered by the person you were completely in love with? And, yes, I did just admit it. Hopefully you'd caught on to that before now, though…

Cutting off my thoughts, the door in front of me was nearly thrown off its hinges as ter Borcht marched through. I put on my best glare and stuck out my tongue for good measure.

"Your immaturity disgust me," he spat, his face looking like he wanted nothing to do with me. Here's an idea: let me go, and we'll never have to see each other again!

"As your saliva does me," I replied calmly, and changed my frown into a polite smile.

"Do vou want to get out of here alive, or not?" I decided being alive was on the brighter side of things, so I shut my mouth. Not that I wanted to, but like I said, being alive was a plus.

"Now. Ve need a blood tests to confirm zhat vou are ze vright ones. The needle, please?"

I **hate** needles.

**Fang P.O.V**

The irkish nerd was looking at me with this twisted smile on his face. I was about to ask why when, for what seemed like the millionth time in the past however long we'd been in wherever we were, the door flew open. In marched Tiberius, and, surprisingly, there was nobody behind him.

Awesome. More questions.

"Remember me?" he asked, grinning like an idiot.

No, Tiberius. I forgot. Come on! Bird kid, not old man!

"Um, yeah," I replied in a sarcastic tone, which he clearly didn't like. Smile? Poof! It's gone.

"Listen, kid, let's get one thing strait: I hate you," No freaking duh, "And now, thanks to you, some of my buddies are dead." As badly as I could tell this was going to end up, you have no idea how funny it sounded to hear him say the word 'buddies'. It did _not_ sound right coming from a voice that deep and a body that big.

"You wanna join 'em?" I was really screwing myself worse by the minute.

'Shut UP Fang! SHUT UP!!' I screamed mentally. Of all the times to actually talk, _this_ is the one I choose?

"How badly do you want this to hurt, freak?!" Now he was mad.

"Bet you couldn't beat me on regular standards! You're just a freaking coward!" I am such an idiot, "Afraid to fight a fourteen-year-old kid fairly!"

I could practically see the veins on his head, like in some cartoon, and yet, I still thought it a good idea to talk some more.

"You're PATHETIC!" And BOOM goes the dynamite!

The oversized rock came flying at me, sending me into the wall, which, in case you've forgotten, was made of _steel_ and made a giant Fang-shaped dent in it. My breath flew out of me, and I thought I heard some ribs cracking from where his massive shoulder collided with me. My theory became a much larger possibility when my chest began to feel like it was on fire.

Ignoring the pain, I blinked away the stars and jumped off the floor, landing punch after punch on his chest and shoulder, even a few on his neck, but my strongest blows bounced right back off. IT was crazy: As much muscle as the guy had, it felt like punching silly putty. After about five minutes, I looked up to see Tiberius laughing silently.

"Give it up. It's useless, brat," He must have been able to tell how confused I was (Holy crap! He actually has a _brain_!), because he snarled at me and continued, "Don't think you're the only one with special abilities. Arrogant freak." With that, he grabbed my left arm in his no-longer-rubbery hand, and as I tried to break free, his grip tightened. I heard the bone snap, and I gasped in pain. Otherwise, I didn't make a sound. That creep wasn't going to get the satisfaction.

Clearly wanting some sort of reaction, Tiberius kicked my legs out from under me, and I landed hard on the floor. For a while, my lungs wouldn't react to what I told them to do. Dark spots had begun to swim in front of my eyes before I finally was able to get some oxygen into my body.

The second I took my first breath, was the second he landed his first kick to my stomach.

* * *

_And there ya go!!! Merry Christmas everybody!! (As Clark Griswold has a freakout in his livingroom in the backround, haha) And ya not sure if this is exactly what you would call a 'feel-good Christmas chapter' but hey, it's something! And, if you don't celebrate Christmas, then happy Hanukkah (sorry if I spelled that wrong... never was great with spelling!), or happy Kwanzaa, or happy wintertime!! Whichever you choose!!! But, before I go..... HOLY CRAP FIRST WHITE CHRISTMAS I'D SEEN SINCE I MOVED TO TEXAS WHEN I WAS 4!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!!! Of course it was pretty much gone by 4 but... it was there!!! And AMAZING!!!!!! Muahahahahahhaahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy New Year in case I don't update by then, which is probable so.... adios and see you in either late 2009 or 20freakin10!!!!!!_


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